Swapping Places
by Violet to Blue
Summary: Levon is constantly annoyed with his new partner until some strange happenings make him reconsider the relationship.
1. Chapter 1

Standard Disclaimer: Houston Knights belongs to Jay Bernstein and Michael Butler and Columbia Pictures. No copyright infringement is intended. This is fan fiction, written out of love for the shows. I am making no money off this. Any original characters who may appear in these stories are the property of the author.

Houston Knights Fanfiction

This story is for Deeanna1973

 **Swapping Places**

By Violet to Blue

Summery: Levon is constantly annoyed with his new partner until some strange happenings make him reconsider the relationship.

 **Chapter 1  
**

„This is really unbearable, I can´t breathe in this stifling moist heat and all my clothes are soaked," Joe LaFiamma muttered, unsuccessfully trying to wipe the sweat from his face.

„Oh come on, LaFiamma, give me a break!" Levon Lundy rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Don´t tell me you don´t have summers in Chicago too."

"Summers, yes. But this isn´t summer. This is a scorching humid hell. I can´t sleep at night. It´s useless to take a shower, sweating through my clothes only minutes later." The dark-haired Italian ran his hand through his hair. His mind went back home, to Chicago, where there was always a light breeze pleasantly cooling the heat of summer.

"Don´t you think it´s about time you got used to our climate here?" The Texan was by now rather annoyed by his complaining partner. "How do you think you´ll ever settle into your life here?"

LaFiamma gave him a sharp look. "What gave you the idea I´d want to settle into anything you call _**my life**_ here? My life is in Chicago and I´ll be damned if I don´t get it back pretty soon."

It wasn´t easy to get along with that hot-headed Italian and in return Levon Lundi didn´t let a single chance pass by to poke at the other man´s wound. "I wouldn´t be so sure about it if I were you, LaFiamma." Levon smirked smugly. "You´ve been going on ´bout nothing else since you´ve come here, and I´m beginning to doubt that it´s ever gonna happen."

Joe LaFiamma felt the intended insult and looked away. He didn´t fancy the other man seeing how close to the mark the stab had hit. "I´d like to see you…" he muttered under his breath.

"What did yah say, LaFiamma?" Lundy probed sarcastically.

Joe turned back towards the Texan, and his face first was hostile but then immediately turned impassive. "Nothing, Lundy."

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Lundy´s fingers were impatiently drumming away at his steering wheel. Why was this Italian partner of his never ready when he wanted to pick him up for work? Didn´t the man own an alarm clock? That was a lesson he´d really like to drum into that unreliable new partner of his. Always late and unable to find his way around. Why had he of all people been assigned to the job of babysitting that ne´er-do-well?

"Ah, the graveyard shift," he harrumphed when the passenger door opened at last and the dark-haired man slid onto the seat beside him, not without immediately picking up the waves of impatience radiating off the Texan.

"Morning." The greeting was uttered through gritted teeth.

The ride to the station passed in silence, and as soon as they had entered the parking garage they got the order to take one of the plain wraps and assist Joe-Bill and Carol with a dangerous arrest.

"Let me drive," La Fiamma held out his hand in a prompting gesture.

"Who do you think yah are? You don´t know our way around," Lundy retorted not without contempt.

LaFIamma gritted his teeth and tried not to show his anger. "I´ll never find my way around if I don´t get a chance to drive." There was a furrow of tension between the dark brows, and the eyes were just a bit too narrow. "Give me the key."

"Ok," Lundy shrugged, then skillfully threw over the key, hoping to catch his partner off guard. But the Italian managed to catch the missile without difficulty. "But don´t expect me to give directions all the time."

"Won´t happen," LaFiamma retorted dryly.

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"What happened?" Joanne Beaumont, Lieutenant at the Major Crimes Unit interrogated her newly teamed Detective Sergeants Lundy and LaFiamma. They had been assigned to a job, but hadn´t shown up at the location of an arrest. Now, one and a half hour later, they had finally managed to show up at the station again.

She didn´t get an answer. Good. At least they were acting as a team, not putting the blame on each other. But she couldn´t let it slip. Carol and Joe-Bill had had to do the job alone, a dangerous job at that.

"So?"

Lundy drew a deep breath, but at the same instant LaFimma spoke up. "Sorry, Lieutenant, it was my fault. I got lost on the way to that assignment, that´s because I don´t know my way around yet and all."

"Huh-huh," Beaumont stated dryly. "And Lundy didn´t know the way either, I suppose?" she said with a slightly derisive tone, eying her former partner Levon Lundy suspiciously.

Of course Levon had felt triumphant when LaFiamma had, just as expected, been unable to find his way to their destination and back. But now he felt foolish, he hadn´t considered the seriousness of the situation. He was wracking his brain for an excuse, which he knew the Lieutenant wouldn´t buy.

But again LaFiamma beat him to an answer: "Sure he knew, only Lundy had promised not to tell me, you know, it was a test of sorts." He sounded totally honest.

"Something tells me you´re not taking your work seriously enough. To mend this you´ll put in two extra shifts at the week-end, both of you," the Lieutenant said with an emotionless face. "Both of you meaning you do that shift together."

LaFiamma bowed his head and Lundy knew better than to contradict his superior and former partner. That extra shift would cost his partner dearly, he silently promised himself.

The two men returned to their desks. They hadn´t even settled in their chairs when Carol and Joe-Bill entered the bullpen, their faces red from exercion and their clothes showing sweat stains.

"Thanks for the backup," Joe-Bill barked riled. Carol threw something down on LaFiamma´s desk. He picked it up and looked at her with a sheepish grin. It was a map of Houston.

"You better take this home and study it over the weekend, Joey," Carol said without reproach. "I guess you don´t want to rely on Levon forever." She gave him a congenial smile.

LaFiamma smiled back at her. But Lundy couldn´t keep back the snide remark. "He won´t have the time to study the map, Carol, not with that extra shifts the Lieutenant just rewarded us with." Then he got up to pour himself another mug of coffee. "I never would have deemed it possible to get lost on your way from home to work," he mumbled under his breath, not minding that his partner was bound to overhear his words.

LaFiamma uneasily shifted in his chair. He would have liked to crawl into his desk drawer in order to be invisible to all those piercing looks just this one time.

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Normally Lundy and LaFiamma had the week-end off. Now the two days of penalty duty took up all their free time and the prospect of twelve days of continuous duty didn´t contribute to the mood of both partners. But at last the two additional shifts ended and Sunday night found the unlike pair at Chicken´s.

LaFiamma hadn´t had time to shop to do his own cooking. Lundy hardly ever cooked for himself and so he didn't have much difficulty talking the Italian into sharing his meal at the barbeque restaurant.

The owner was a good friend of Levon and he welcomed the unequal pair heartily. "Levon, you look tired? You two been working on a week-end? And you, LaFiamma, giving me the honor of your presence?"

Normally LaFiamma didn´t fancy the food at Chicken´s place. "Hi Chicken, yeah, I thought I might as well eat here, not having the time to shop and cook with the extra shift and all."

"The usual, Levon? And a beer?" Chicken brought the menu and lay it in front of LaFiamma.

"Could I have a salad?" the Italian asked a bit timidly. "And a bottle of spring water."

"Sorry, LaFiamma, I don´t have salad on the menu. If you had ordered in advance…" the black man shrugged apologetically.

"Then get me something not too greasy," LaFiamma said, not able to make up his mind.

"Stop being picky, LaFiamma," Lundy teased. "And I recommend you have beer with the food, it will help your digestion."

The two days of extra duty hadn´t passed exactly smoothly and LaFiamma was tired of putting up any more opposition. So just for once he took what he was offered.

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Monday came much too quickly, and as Levon had to take his car to the body shop for some repair, LaFiamma had agreed to find other transportation. Presuming the Italian was late, as usual, the Texan wasn´t surprised to find his partner´s desk still empty on his arrival at Reisner.

Levon strolled over to the perking coffee pot and got himself a mug. He settled into his chair and started to read through the reports accumulated on his desk.

An hour later Joe still hadn´t shown up when the Lieutenant came out of her office. "LaFiamma isn´t coming in today, he´s taking a personal day," she said matter-of-factly.

Levon looked up, surprised. LaFiamma hadn´t mentioned anything about a personal day. He also wondered why Joanne had granted the Italian´s request, as it weakened the disciplinary measure she had taken by imposing the two extra shifts. But who was he to question his superior´s decisions?

Come to think of it, it might be rather a good thing to be rid of his partner, if only for one day, Levon thought. All of a sudden the day looked much brighter and he didn´t mind at all that it was only Monday.

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"Hope Joey will be feeling better tomorrow," Annie Hartung said when she passed by Levon´s desk in her wheelchair in the afternoon.

"Why, Annie, who said he wasn´t feeling well?" Setting his feet down from his desk Levon came up in surprise.

Annie had been the only colleague to welcome Joe warmly after his forced transferal to Houston. They had become friends immediately, and Annie was the only confidant Joe had, even though Leven wasn´t aware of it.

"Well, he called me this morning before he called Joanne. He asked if it would be better to put in a personal day instead of a day of sick leave."

"Why would he need a sick day? He was perfectly alright last night." Levon asked, wondering if Joe just wanted to have a day off to compensate for the missed weekend.

"He said he must have eaten something that disagreed with his stomach, and that he was sick all night."

"We were at Chicken´s last night, but he didn´t mention anything to me," Levon mused. "He should have called me, not you." There was a slight tone of resentment in his voice.

"Well, perhaps he will, when the two of you have finally stopped fighting," Annie said benevolently.

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This evening Levon skipped his usual visit at Chicken´s and went straight home. Due to the weekend duty his horse Fooler hadn´t had any exercise. The mare was already expecting him impatiently, and the extended ride proved to be the right measure to put rider and horse at ease. When Levon returned to the house it was already dark.

It was his habit not to switch the light on. He knew his way around the house in his sleep, and he poured himself a small tumbler of whiskey and sat down in his favorite easy chair. All of a sudden he felt very tired. He closed his eyes just for a moment. In the distance he could still hear the neighing of his mare…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2  
**

"Now listen Fooler, that´s not very nice of you." Levon tried to control the mare that was pulling on the reins and refused to turn the corner. He pressed his heels lightly into her flanks and with a sudden jump she bolted and took off.

This wasn´t at all like the old girl. And it was totally unlike Levon that he wasn´t able to stop her. She galloped around the corner, taking off as if she were part of a stampede. The two, rider and horse, were hit by a sudden gust of cold. Levon´s hat was blown from his head and he pulled on the reins hard. Fooler reared up, causing him to slide off her back. Everything happened very quickly. Before he regained his balance, the mare galloped off, neighing loudly.

For a moment Levon stood there, perplexed.

Then he looked around, taking in his surrounding. He was in a street right in the middle of a city, tall buildings of glass and steel towering up on both sides. An ice cold wind was sweeping down the street and Levon realized that he was only wearing his jeans jacket. Wow, this was cold. His teeth started to chatter immediately.

Where was he and how had he gotten here? He whistled after his horse, a command she normally obeyed. But she was nowhere to be seen.

Levon plotted along the street and the icy cold wind blew right into his face. Snowflakes came out of the blue and they felt like tiny needles painfully piercing his skin.

Where was Fooler? The ground started to get slippery with the newly fallen snow under his leather soles and he started to lose his footing. Regardless of the heavy traffic Levon started running. The cold got worse with every step and he called out his horse´s name.

Gripped by sheer panic he was about to run into the traffic of a crossing street when something held him back violently by his collar.

"Sir!"

Levon was whirled around and looked into a young face, the face of a uniformed police officer. The uniform was blue, as were the eyes of the rookie.

"Sir, what do you think you´re doing?"

"I´m looking for my horse," Levon panted. "It must have passed by here, haven´t you seen her?"

The officer scrutinized him with a disbelieving frown. "Your horse?"

"Yeah, she´s brown and wearing a Western saddle. She might get hurt in this traffic, something must have scared her and she bolted." Levon looked around frantically, his eyes desperately trying to penetrate the by now thickly falling snow.

"Sir, you´re not telling me you lost your horse in the middle of the city in this weather?"

"What city is this anyway?" Levon had still no idea where he was, none of the buildings looked familiar to him.

"Sir, this is Chicago. And I recommend you put on something warmer if you don´t want to freeze to death. Temperatures will soon go down to minus thirty degrees."

Though the icy wind brought tears to Levon´s eyes he could clearly see that the beat officer looked very much like a younger version of his partner Joe LaFiamma. From underneath the blue cap a bang of near black hair had fallen over the young man´s left eye. His cheeks, ears and the tip of his nose were red from the biting cold.

Levon was unable to take in the information. His teeth were chattering. Momentarily he had forgotten that he was looking for Fooler.

"Sir, have you been drinking? Have you taken any drugs?" The officer pulled out a walkie-talkie. "Sir, I´d like you to come with me to the station."

"No way, I need to find my horse."

"Sir, you can´t stay out here like this, you´ll be frozen solid in no time."

Levon tore lose and started to run down the street. There, in the far distance he could hear Fooler neighing…

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He came awake with a jolt. Oh God, what a nightmare. Levon felt his heart race while he was still panting from the imaginary run. He had never felt so strangely out of place.

He jumped up and hurried out to the barn to check on Fooler. Everything was fine, the horse peacefully resting in her box. Far away on the horizon a bolt of lightning split the night sky, but it was too far away. The thunder never reached Levon´s ear.

Slowly he returned to the house and went to bed. But even though he was tired he kept tossing and turning for a long time.

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"Joe won´t be coming in for another two days." Joanne had entered the bullpen and had directly headed to Levon´s desk. "He called me last night and asked if I knew a doctor who was willing to call at the house. I arranged for Dr. Barrett to look in on Joe. The doc said that Joe´s caught the tourist bug."

There was a commotion of general laughter among the colleagues.

"Ah, Texan flu," Joe-Bill smirked not without malicious joy.

"I already wondered how long it would take…" Carol laughed.

"Yeah, was only a question of time…"

The tourist bug, or the Texan flu as they also called it, was a light infection visitors were likely to catch, especially during the hot humid months, a stomach flu with a bit of fever, nausea and diarrhea. Though rather aggravating, it was generally harmless.

Levon nodded, acknowledging the fact that he wouldn´t have to put up with his annoying partner for another two days. To his own surprise he didn´t feel as overjoyed as yesterday.

The nightmare popped up in his head. How weird he had felt thrown into that strange and hostile environment of an unfamiliar city in a strange state. He hadn´t imagined before how Joe must be feeling, never in all the month the young Italian had been exiled to Houston.

Perhaps he should call at his partner´s place and see if Joe needed anything.

It turned out, though, that Levon couldn´t spare the time that day.

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Levon slumped down in his armchair and opened the bottle of beer. What a day! Due to Joe´s sick-leave they were short of detectives in the Major Crimes Unit. There had been several new cases that day and never even the time for a lunchbreak or the usual dinner at Chicken´s.

Well, that was just the way things sometimes went, never mind, he would make himself a sandwich in a few minutes…

XIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIX

This time he had taken a warm jacket. But the icy cold wind was still tugging at his hat and hurting his ears. One hand was balled up in his pocket to keep warm, the other painfully cold while tightly holding Fooler´s reins. This time she wouldn´t get away. First Levon had thought that the place on the corner was a good location to appeal to the pity of any passer-by. How else would he be able to beg for enough money to buy food or rent a place in a stable for Fooler? But Levon wasn´t even sure where to find one in this strange city, where the streets were like deep canons of glass and steel. And to sleep rough in this kind of weather certainly wasn´t an option.

Levon looked into the paper cup he had put on the ground in front of him. Only a few small coins had been thrown inside. He was wracking his brain for a way to get by when a voice spoke up close to his ear:

"Sir, what do you think you´re doing here?"

Levon looked around and faced the rosy face of a young uniformed police officer with stunningly blue eyes. "Didn´t you see the sign? _No loitering, no soliciting!_ There are strict laws in this city, Sir, and high penalties for any violation." The officer drew notepad and pen from his pocket, but didn´t start to fill in the ticket right away.

First Levon didn´t know what to say. The look in that young man´s eyes was quite hypnotizing. Then he opted for the truth. "Well, how do you think I´d be able to pay for a stable for my horse?"

"So you admit this is your horse, Sir?"

"Sure, whose horse should it be?"

"And that manure would be yours too then?" The officer pointed at the pile of droppings that had started to pile up behind Fooler.

"Ah…yeah, well…"

"Sir, I do understand your situation. But my job is the law enforcement in this city and if everybody did what you´re doing right now, our nice city would soon be a muck-hill." The officer pulled out a walkie-talkie and rapidly spoke into the device. Levon couldn´t understand a single word.

"And then there´s the animal´s welfare to consider as well. I´ve called for a truck to take Jolly Jumper to a shelter. As soon as you can prove you´re not homeless and have an adequate living quarter for the animal, you might claim him back."

"It´s she, Fooler," Levon stated dryly.

The officer´s brow furrowed skeptically. "You´re not adding insult of a representative of the law to the list of offences you´re already facing, are you?"

"Her name is Fooler, that´s all I said," Levon harrumphed slightly annoyed.

"No reason to get unfriendly. Have you been drinking, Sir?"

"No, but I need to eat something, I´m kind of starving." As if on cue Levon could hear his stomach growl.

There came a scratchy voice over the loud speaker of the walkie-talkie. "Truck´s on the way, LaFiamma. Want to take the cowboy in as well?"

The young officer seemed to consider for a moment, then answered loud and clear: "No, no need." Then he put the communication device back into his pocket. With a quick move he pulled out his billfold and retrieved a twenty dollar note. He took the reins from Levon´s ice-cold hand, and with a gesture that almost felt like a caress he folded Levon´s frozen fingers around the money.

"Now you go and get something warm to drink and a good meal. There are shelters for the homeless a bit further down the road. In the city of Chicago no one needs to sleep rough in this kind of weather. And in the morning things will look better." The boyish smile on the young face was so heartwarming that Levon couldn´t say another word.

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Startled out of the strange dream, Levon looked around his living room. Where did all that nonsense come from? All through the months LaFiamma had been his partner, Levon had never dreamt about the man. And now this was the second night in a row he was finding himself in a dream in Chicago in such absurd circumstances.

He got up quickly as if to shake the dream and went to the kitchen. A brief inspection of his fridge confirmed that he hadn´t had any time to shop for groceries. He threw the fridge shut in frustration and went to bed.

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"What kind of food is this?" Levon put down the menu. He couldn´t make sense of any of the dishes. He could hardly spell out the words and everything looked foreign. "Don´t you have any barbeque?"

"Mi dispiache, Signore, I´m sorry, this is an Italian restaurant," the young dark haired waiter with the bright blue eyes said.

"You mean Italians don´t eat meat?"

"Ma certo, of course we eat meat, Signore. Look here." The young man wiped the dark hair that had fallen over his left eye from his face and pointed at a column with the heading _CARNE_. "All these are dishes with fine meat: Scalopine, Osso Bucco, Porcetta, Bistecca, Saltimbocca…"

Levon felt absolutely foolish, not understanding a single word of what the guy was saying. It all sounded pretty strange. From the kitchen, however, he could hear the sizzle of a frying pan and the smell that emanated from the small room at the back of the restaurant was mouthwatering. "Well, get me whatever is frying on that stove, will yah?"

"Scusa? Oh certo, that would be Saltimbocca alla Romana, an excellent choice. You want any vegetable with the Saltimbocca? Zucchini, broccoli or fagiolini perhaps?"

Levon blushed. He wasn´t one for too many greens, and certainly not for any of those grown on exotic plants. "No, just get me that salti… roma… whatever the name."

"Volentieri, Signore." The young waiter disappeared.

Listening to the sounds from the kitchen Levon looked around the place. It was nice, not sophisticated, but tidy and unpretentious, with freshly ironed red and white checkered table cloths. On the walls were pictures of the seaside with turquoise water and white cliffs basking in the bright sunshine. Levon thought that Mother Minnie would like the place. He would too, if it hadn´t been for the foreign dishes on the menu.

After a while the waiter reappeared, a tea towel neatly folded over his arm, his other hand carrying a dish of deliciously smelling meat. He set it down in front of Levon. "Buon appetito!"

"Sorry?"

"Enjoy your meal, Sir."

"Thank you… what´s your name?" Levon asked on a whim, picking up his fork and knife and starting to cut up the meat.

"Giuseppe, Signore, my name is Giuseppe LaFiamma, but everybody just calls me Joey." He winked and his smile was rather radiant and charming.

Levon lifted the fork to his mouth…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3  
**

…and the harsh ringing of his alarm clock chased away the mouthwatering dream. Levon sat up in his bed, virtually trying to hold on to the smell. With a bark of sheer frustration he got hold of his alarm clock and threw it against the opposite wall. The ringing ceased as glass and mechanic parts rained down. He turned around and for a moment hid his face in the pillow. Then he rolled out of bed to start the last day without his partner.

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And a very slow day it was too. So Levon took the time to leaf through the telephone book of Houston. He remembered Joe mentioning that he couldn´t find a decent Italian restaurant and now he understood. There really seemed to be none.

At noon he dialed the Italian´s home number.

"Yah?" came the hoarse answer, thick with sleep.

"Sorry, hope I didn´t wake yah. It´s Lundy, I wanted to make sure everything´s ok on your end."

"Yeah, I´m ok, just a bit sleepy." Levon could hear his partner yawn at the other end of the line.

"You want me to get you anything?"

"No, don´t bother, I don´t need anything."

"Ok, see you tomorrow then?" The question remained unanswered.

"Mmh.." With a click the line went dead. Well, Levon sure had expected his partner to be a bit more talkative. But on the other hand, after all those months of hostility and bickering…

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The next night Levon wasn´t really surprised to find himself in another of those strange dreams in Chicago. Only this time Joe wasn´t part of it. At least that´s what he thought at first. He was driving through those streets in his Jimmy. Every time he got to a junction and tried to turn a corner, the next street looked exactly the same. All the side streets were one-way streets, but he always was at the wrong end and couldn´t enter. The light reflected by the large buildings was blinding. As soon as he stopped at a red light all the cars behind him started honking their horns. He couldn´t understand what came over the radio and all the street names he got from dispatch sounded alike.

Then he came to an intersection and the traffic lights were green. But as soon as he accelerated his vehicle the cars from the crossing directions came at him. Everyone was honking and the cars locked in what looked like a large knot, blocking each other´s way and aggressively honking at each other.

Then there was a sharp and persistent whistle. And everything went deadly silent.

Levon squeezed his eyes shut against the harsh light. When he opened them again, there was a figure in a blue uniform standing in front of his vehicle, one hand raised, a whistle dangling from the person´s lip. For a second Levon thought how daring it was to step in front of a car like this. If he had overlooked that person he might have overrun whoever was standing in front of his car now. All of a sudden he felt his hands shake with the surge of adrenalin.

The figure stepped up to the passenger side of the Jimmy, opened the door and jumped in. Levon took in the mischievously laughing blue eyes, the dark hair.

"Lost your way, did yah, hah?" the officer said, with a grin. "I know the feeling."

Levon was dumbstruck. He nodded, but otherwise didn´t manage to get out a whole sentence. "LaFiamma, I… you…."

"Come on man, do you want to grow roots?"

"But I don´t know my way around." Levon felt desperate, almost like a child. He couldn´t do it, he would never find his way out of this maze.

"Don´t worry, I´ll give you directions. Now… right, turn left here…"

Levon came up gasping, his nightshirt soaked with sweat, his hands still clasping the imaginary steering wheel.

After a few minutes his heartbeat slowed. But he was sure he wouldn´t be able to go back to sleep.

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"Look, LaFiamma," Joe-Bill laughed, his chin pointing towards the door of the bullpen. "Looks like you and Lundy swapped places. You came in early and see who´s late."

Sutton grinned smugly while Carol and Joanne snickered benevolently.

"LaFiamma´s a native now, at least as far as the germs are concerned. He´s got all the bacteria in his guts a real Texan has too," Sutton explicated.

Joe shook his head in disbelief. He disliked immensely to be classified in such a way, he didn´t want to have anything a Texan had, and least of all germs or bacteria.

"But it has its advantages too, Joey, you´ll never catch the tourist bug a second time," Carol laughed.

"Thanks, that´s a real consolation," Joe answered with a halfhearted grin.

Levon was about to make a snide remark, but somehow he couldn´t think of one and he just felt too tired. So he settled at his desk and just ignored his colleagues.

A hand came into his field of vision and set a mug of steaming coffee in front of him. "Morning Lundy."

Levon looked up and almost expected that young face he had seen in his dreams. But there was the real-life version of Joseph Antony LaFiamma, a seasoned detective, trying to gauge his partner´s mood, smiling at him with just the tiniest question in his eyes, hoping that he wasn´t the reason the Texan was so ill at ease this morning.

"Morning LaFiamma, thanks," Levon said and savored the coffee. He wasn´t in the mood for much talking today. The three days without his partner had passed smoothly, but they also had been kind of stale, like a soup without salt and lacking all herbs and spices. And those nights with the weird dreams had certainly taken their toll. Levon looked up and noticed that Joe was a bit pale. But that was to be expected. He wasn´t able to read Joe, but he had the eerie feeling that the Italian knew about the dreams.

Nonsense! It couldn´t be.

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"Lundy, LaFiamma, in my office, now!" Joanne made her point to split up the meeting and remind her team of their duties.

Both men were standing side by side in front of her desk, their posture tense.

"Are you alright?" she asked, addressing both alike, taking in the pallor of the Italian as well as the tired eyes of the Texan.

"Yeah, sure, Lieutenant," Joe said, while Levon just nodded.

"Good, then what´s keeping you?" she said with a smile. "I have an assignment for you in Willowlakes, it´s about the body that was found two days ago. Carol can give you the details."

They took the Jimmy. The day was hot and as usual the air was charged with moisture. Levon was driving and from the corner of his eye he surreptitiously watched Joe. When he noticed that Joe was wiping the sweat from his face, Levon closed the windows and turned up the AC. It took only minutes for the interior to cool. Joe relaxed visibly.

See, Levon thought by himself, it isn´t that difficult to make someone else feel comfortable. And to his own surprise it made him comfortable too, to see his partner wasn´t suffering from the heat.

When they returned from their interview to the car, Levon dangled the car key in front of Joe´s nose. "Wanna give it a try?"

Joe looked perplexed, then his face darkened. "You know I don´t know my way around…" he said with a note of suppressed anger.

"Don´t worry, I´ll give you directions. We can´t have a member of the MCU end up stranded in no man´s land, can we? You´ll find your way around in no time, don´t worry."

Though Joe looked doubtful he took the key from Levon´s hand and settled in the driver´s seat.

At first the ride went smoothly, Joe drove well and had no difficulty following Levon´s directions. Even though he had in the beginning been suspicious that the Texan wanted to lead him on, he relaxed after a while. Levon explained about the general layout of the urban districts and suburbs, the connecting highways and landmarks. Joe eagerly absorbed the detailed information. The atmosphere in the Jimmy was congenial and stress-free.

They had passed half of the distance back to the station when Joe pulled up to the curb and stopped the car.

Levon looked at him with concern. "Something wrong?"

Joe seemed embarrassed. "Well, yeah, I…I feel a bit faint."

"Faint?" Levon scanned his partner´s pale face. "Why didn´t you say something?"

"Yeah, well, I do now. You know, I haven´t eaten much the past days, I could do with a little fuel," Joe said, smiling sheepishly.

"Come on, let´s swap places, I´ll drive and we´ll stop for lunch on the way back to Reisner." Levon jumped out on the passenger side, while Joe vacated the driver´s seat.

"But I can´t take anything greasy or heavy, please let´s go somewhere other than Chicken´s," Joe said anxiously.

Levon smiled reassuringly. "Don´t worry, I´ll take you somewhere nice. You´ll like the food," he said. At least he hoped Joe would. Levon hadn´t been able to check the place out, but he trusted the informant who had given him the tip.

They drove for another fifteen minutes and at last Levon stopped in front of a small diner in the back of beyond. There were red and white checkered curtains framing the small windows. A red painted sign above the entrance read: _Mamma Gina´s_.

They entered the small restaurant and were greeted by a middle-aged matron who introduced herself as Mamma Gina. It was early and they were still the only guests.

Joe looked at the menu with round eyes. He couldn´t believe this was really true. "Do you have Minestrone?" he asked timidly.

"Ma certo, of course I serve Minestrone. I made a whole pot this morning," Mamma Gina laughed. "What kind of Italian restaurant would this be if I didn´t have a decent Minestrone on the menu?"

"What is that, a Minest…Min…," Levon couldn´t get the word out.

"It´s a vegetable soup," Joe blushed slightly, "an Italian specialty my grandmother and my mother used to cook. It would be perfect for my tummy… well it´s light and the perfect food for a stomach that´s been a bit out of sorts."

"Good," Levon mused. "I think I´ll take something else." His eyes scanned the menu, desperately searching for that fantastic meat dish he had been served in his dream. But he couldn´t remember the name. "I think it´s called Salti… ah Salti… Roma, or something like that."

Both Joe and Mamma Gina looked flabbergasted. Then the woman shouted: "Of course, you mean Saltimbocca alla Romana. Sure I can make it for you, it´s a famous Italian dish."

"Great," Levon said with a broad smile. Joe looked at him totally dumbstruck. Until now Levon had always said he didn´t know any Italian dishes.

They didn´t have to wait long for their order. Both men enjoyed the meal immensely. For Joe it was the first real food he had had in days and it instantly revived him. The fact that it tasted like home warmed his heart in a way that he hadn´t experienced since his arrival in Houston. And it more than compensated for the three lonely days in bed spent in the confinement of his apartment.

When Joe looked up from his bowl of soup, Levon could see that his partner´s eyes were bright with suppressed tears. He was touched. He hadn´t expected the treat to be so efficient. Quickly he tried to divert Joe´s attention.

"Did you ever work as a waiter?" he asked, remembering that specific dream.

Joe looked surprised. "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did. Why?"

"Oh, just interested. I can imagine you in such a nice place, guess you´d be the perfect waiter, courteous and charming," Levon said without the slightest scorn. "Wanna tell me about it?"

For an instant Joe seemed to be far away. Then he started to speak in a low voice: "It was when I quit Law School and before I went to the Police Academy. Uncle Mickey wouldn´t talk to me, but Aunt Teresa got me a job at the restaurant one of her cousins owned, Aunt Federica. It was a tiny place, a bit like this one, with red and white checkered table cloths."

Levon´s jaw must have dropped as he listened wide eyed, seeing before his mental eye the scene from his dream with the young Giuseppe as a waiter.

"…I worked there for a few months, I even sometimes did some of the cooking. Levon? You alright?"

Looking into the Italian´s smiling face, Levon realized that he must be quite a sight. He closed his mouth and swallowed. "This stuff is delicious," he put in, trying to draw the attention away from his stunned expression.

"Where did you find this place? I did a lot of research and couldn´t find a single decent Italian restaurant," Joe enquired, "except for those two very expensive ones in the city center."

"You won´t believe it, but I got the tip from Chicken."

Joe laughed. "You´re kidding, you mean he risks losing his customers by recommending this place?"

"He wouldn´t lose me as a customer, there´s no danger, he knows that."

All of a sudden Joe became serious. "You didn´t tell Chicken that I fell sick after I ate at his place, did you?"

"No, I didn´t get the chance to eat there this week. And I never would have thought it was Chicken´s food that made you sick."

Joe shook his head. "Probably not, the doc said I caught those germs every foreigner catches at this time of year." He slurped another spoonful of soup. "Do you know what _saltimbocca_ means?"

"It means something?" Levon asked between bites.

"Of course, it actually means: _jumps in the mouth_."

"Very appropriate," Levon laughed, stuffing a big slice of meat into his mouth,

XIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIXIX

Levon drove them back to the station. All through the ride Joe was very quiet.

When they had almost reached their destination, Joe spoke up again. "Lundy, why did you … I mean what made you look for that restaurant in the first place?" When he didn´t get an answer, he continued, "…and all the other things, like letting me drive, giving directions and putting on the AC when I was feeling too hot…" Joe´s look was almost pleading, he needed to understand what had brought about the change in Levon´s behavior.

"Well, Joe," Levon deliberately refrained from calling his partner by his last name, "I thought about myself, you know, how I would feel if I were suddenly exiled to Chicago." Levon didn´t fancy relaying the exact content of his dreams. "I kind of imagined myself standing in your shoes, like we were swapping places. And that made me realize that you´re not at all acting weird. In fact, I would probably be acting in much the same way if I were in a similar situation."

Now it was Joe´s turn to look dumbstruck. But Levon hadn´t finished yet.

"To be quite honest, I missed you while you were on sick leave." It wasn´t easy to admit, and it also included the risk that Joe would laugh at him.

But Joe didn´t laugh. Levon caught a glimpse of the tear filled blue eyes before the Italian looked away.

A long silence ensued.

"Thanks, Levon," Joe finally said, his voice thick with emotions.

"You´re welcome, Joey."

Both partners knew that from now on they would get along just fine.

THE END


End file.
